This is one of a series of pictures I'm going to upload of some of my firearms collection. I'm only uploading those that have a historical background.

~About THIS firearm~
-This was inherited from my grandfather when he passed away. We are not sure exactly when he purchased it. (grandfather on my mothers side) I'm glad we were able to get this, because when he passed away, the guns he had were kindof chosen out of the group for different family members. My family had first pick, so I instantly picked this one because we don't have any double barrels, and it looked like the oldest out of the group.

-I have no idea when my grandpa bought this. Possibly between 1950-1960

-After some quick research, the serial number on it shows it was made some time in 1928-1929

-This is a 12 gauge.
----I have a few different shot shells shown here. From left to right; 12gauge 3" Magnum shell with 00 buck shot (clear ones), 12gauge 3" Magnum sehll with 00 buck shot (red ones, these are alittle shorter than the clear ones), and 12gauge 2.75" 7.5 shot (grey ones).

~About the firearm~
-Lefever is named after the founder of the company, Daniel Myron LeFever. In 1876 he joined John Nichols and formed Nichols & LeFever. After he left that Lefever developed the first automatic hamerless shotgun (this means that whenever the breach is opened, as seen here, a fireing pin inside the receiver is cocked and the shells that are in the gun ejected. Before they were fired with hammers or "Rabbit Ears".) and went into buisness himself.

-In 1886 LeFever lost control of his company which by then was called LeFever Arms Company.

-In 1902 D. LeFever left LeFever Arms Company to form D. M. LeFever, Sons & Company with sons Charles F. LeFever, Frank, and George.

-The Lefever Arms Company continued to make LeFever designed shotguns in Syracuse until 1916 when they were purchased by the Ithaca Gun Company. Ithaca continued to produce LeFever-designed guns under the Lefever Arms Company name in Ithaca, New York until 1921.
----Ithaca is the place of manufacture of this shotgun.

~Shotguns in general~
-Rifles and pistols are measured in calibers, while shotguns are measured in gauges. Modern shotgun gauges range from 20, 16, 12, and .410 (.410 is odd as it is meaured in a calibur, if in guage it would be 67 guage). The smaller the number, the bigger the diameter, but don't think .410 is big, remember, thats a caliber.

-Shotguns are smooth-bore while rifles are....rifled. This means there are no grooves cut into the barrel. Specalty hunting shotguns with rifled barrels can be purchased though.

-In the 'old west' times, shotguns (back then known as scatter-guns) were popular with stagecoaches and self defence for shop owners. Although there were in much bigger gauges. 10 gauge was popular. Shotguns at that time were double barrels and a lever action shotgun was developed in 1887 by Winchester and in 1897 the pump action was developed by the same company.
----This is where the term "Rideing Shotgun" came from, stagecoach security.

-10 gauge is very large and can still be found in special shotguns today. The shotguns of the west were 10 gauges and what they shot can be compaired to having a handfull of .32 and .38 caliber bullets and throwing them at someone at high velocity. All in all, very damageing and deadly. Remember though, Newton's third law of motion, all the force required to fire them is also equally applied to the shooter's shoulder.


-This is a very long description, but I thought a few people would like more information about shotguns in general.